Olympic athletes

(Newser) - Beijing’s plan to win the most golds at the Olympics seems likely to pay off in a battle pitting “Chinese authoritarianism versus American liberty,” Matthew Forney writes in the New York Times. Unlike the US, though, China’s citizenry gets little chance to play organized sports, with...

(Newser) - Concerned over its sixth-place overall finish in the Athens Olympics, Germany is taking steps to centralize its athletic training program in a move reminiscent of the notorious East German training machine, the Wall Street Journal reports. In a country where membership in local sports clubs is the norm for athletes,...

(Newser) - American Gladiators wraps up just before the Olympics, and the Games will seem mighty dull by comparison, Ben Mathis-Lilley writes in the Washington Post.  Rooting for the team is what makes watching sports fun, he writes, and it's much easier to root for an ordinary joe playing Rocketball than...

(Newser) - The US Olympic Committee is keeping a tight grip on its athletes headed to Beijing. Ninety percent of Olympians are being "processed" through California's San Jose State University, and the USOC has requested that they not leave campus or talk to outsiders, an experience some athletes are describing as...